On the day the very first humans were born, we were destined to die.
I wouldn't be surprised if I suddenly got reincarnated as a baby and my new parents find out my very first word was Noah.
He is all I could think about.
"Noah!" I ran to embrace him, all the worry leaving my body like poison being purified.
After hearing Typhon's shocking words, we were, once again, cast away from that world I refused to call reality into another one. This time, everything was familiar.
I looked faraway at the empty horizon, the grand green space, completely devoid of trees. The lonely stone-gray well seemed very small in the distance, it still stood like a monster creeping in on us, daring us to get inside it and go through all the suffering again. The blue cloudless sky was immortal above us, any change of weather was unwelcome.
We were inside Typhon's smartphones again.
"What is he trying to show us?" , Noah asked. His gaze was directed not to me, but elsewhere, far ahead to the stone well. I didn't really want to know whatever that demon-slash-oracle wanted to do with us. I wanted to know the why's more than the what's.
When Noah's eyes changed from gray to a dying-leaf yellow color, I immediately knew something was wrong.
We both gazed at the well, which no longer was alone, but accompanied by two humans, wearing nothing but rags.
On the day the very first humans were born, we were destined to die.
My name is Eve.
His name is Adam.
We weren't told to love each other and make more humans.
We weren't warned not to eat an apple from a tree.
We only knew, from a knowledge engraved deep in our newborn cells, that we must never trust each other.
& That's how our story ended.
I don't remember much. My memories are hazy, as if someone made a bad job of erasing them, leaving incomprehensible images behind. I know who I am, but not my age, not my home. I know I was born a female.
And I know that I must never trust anyone.
He comes to me, his eyes lost in my body, exploring every viewable corner of it. I don't mind. I find myself staring at his blue eyes, his silky loose golden locks. His shy beard, not quite abundant, but enough to cover only his chin and the lower half of his cheeks. The chaos in his appearance attracts me. Alas, I cannot trust him.
"Can you speak?" , he asks. A silly question.
I simply nod twice. Because hearing my voice can give away my feelings towards him, something I cannot allow to happen.
I must not trust him. That is the law.
"Do you know where we are?" , he tries once again.
I shake my head. Even if I knew, I would not tell him.
"Hitori", Noah whispered, as if he was afraid to be heard by invisible eavesdroppers inside this untrustworthy world. "We might be so close to a truth no one has revealed before, a truth not even angels and demons are aware of."
He took my hand in his, all shyness gone from his heart, and led me to the couple of humans by the well.
She had a long, blood-tainted mane. Her curly locks reached her lower back, her eyes were as green as the grass we stood on. She radiated pure power, her muscular yet feminine arms and her straight back proof of long years of dedicated workout. Her bare leg muscles seemed hard as stone, ready to run as fast as predators closing in on their prey.
She was a terrifying woman.
The man looked as gorgeous as she was. Long straight blond hair and ocean-filled eyes, a double chin, pale-colored lips and a long pointy elegant nose. His broad chest and thick arms gave off a bodybuilder vibe, while his face was the mirror of innocence.
The more I looked at him, the more I felt at ease, like nothing was wrong.
What an odd pair of humans.
As we approached, we could hear their one-sided conversation.
Is she unable to speak words using her own tongue? he wonders.
"Can you talk?" , he repeats. She nods again, frowning.
"Then why don't you?"
She shrugs. She must have very little trust in him. He doesn't blame her. He only ever remembers coming here without his own will. His name is Adam, but all his knowledge stops here.
"I think" , he began. "That all our answers must be lying inside this well, but only one of us can get down at a time."
She nods, like she has known since the beginning.
"One must hold the rope while the other climbs inside the human-sized bucket. The one holding the rope will slowly let go of one section of the rope at a time, while the other will descend further and further inside the well."
Another nod. It makes him curious about her voice. Is it too embarrassing to speak? Is it too thick like a man's? or too high-pitched ? Does it kill others who hear it ?
"Would you like me to go first?" , he asks.
She shakes her head. This time, she turns her back on him and walks away into the endless land, not knowing where to go, only wanting to escape from him.
This breaks his heart.
He runs to catch up to her, intends to hold her wrist, instead grabbing her hand.
It feels as soft as the clouds above them, or at least that was the closest comparison he thought of.
"Don't touch me" , the woman finally spoke. Her voice wasn't magical. It wasn't high pitched, nor was it particularly thick. It was a female voice, period. Yet, the man's eyes widened, his gaze softened and he smiled widely.
"Finally, I could hear your beautiful voice"
I can't stay here. I must leave.
My heart tells me to trust him, my brain tells me not to.
My hands want to touch him, my legs want to flee.
My body aches for an embrace. It is my destiny. It is the reason why I was brought to this place.
Yet.
Don't trust him. He is up to no good. A voice tells me.
He plans on abandoning you on the surface, alone, with no food or drinks, until you die of starvation or madness.
What if I go first? I ask the voice.
Then he will let go of the rope and you fall to your death.
What to do? What to do?
The woman's face was contorted in a mixed expression of worry and longing. The man didn't hold back. Their fingers intertwined, filling the space that was supposed to be filled. He smiled widely, trying to give off his most reassuring tone.
"It's okay, we will figure everything out together. We are the only ones here. I mean you no harm."
To my surprise, the woman hesitated. A heavy silence descended on them. They were both anxious about each other's reply.
After what I had thought was going to last forever, the woman finally nodded.
"Okay. You go first, then"
I hold the rope for him while he gets into the human-sized bucket.
"I'm ready" , he announces, giving me his brightest smile. "I will yell if i find something, you just hold it tight so i won't fall, okay?"
"Okay"
The light of the day is slowly swallowed by the darkness of the well. Adam keeps hearing noises as he goes in deeper and deeper. Is it going to be an empty search? Were they fooled by their own delusions?
Is it his imagination, or was he getting more and more hungry by the minute?
He is starving. He needs to eat or else death awaits him.
As he is about to yell for the girl to lift him up, he hears a loud clang. He looks around in the darkness, fully aware that he wasn't going to see a thing, but just as he finishes this thought, a bright light illuminates his surroundings.
What he sees sends a wave of pleasure down his spine.
A single golden apple floats on the surface of a small lake, illuminated by a faint light seeping in from the cracks between the rocks.
Adam sees it, and he instantly knows what he has been destined to do.
That apple will save him from starvation forever. That apple will get rid of his mortal needs, will render him completely and utterly invincible.
Adam's apple.
"Mine, and only mine" , he hisses as he licks his lips in anticipation.
He takes the first step forward to his dream.
"Hurry, Noah!" , I screamed. We both ran to the well, doing the exact same thing we did the last time to get down together: we held one end of the rope while slowly letting go of the other. It slided on the turning steel-made wheel, descending us into the depths of the well to know what would happen.
As soon as the man was out of sight, the woman, in fact, didn't wait for him. She stood on the edge of the well, then kneeled down on her knees, then, she slowly climbed down the walls, holding on to the protruding rocks serving as support for her hands and feet.
We followed her suit, curious to know how the story would end.
He takes a step forward towards his goal.
Then another, then another.
As he reaches his hand to grab the apple from the water, another hand closes around his throat from behind, cutting his breath short.
"I knew I shouldn't trust you. Filthy Liar"
It was Eve. Eve caught him red handed.
"You won't get away with this, wanting me to starve to death, thinking only about yourself."
"M–mine" , he gasped for breath, scratching the woman's hands over and over with his fingers, trying to save himself in vain.
"Not in my watch" , she laughed.
Her laughter chilled me to the bone. She lifted him up from his neck, then threw the man away like trash, his head hitting the sharp edge of a rock. Blood trickled on the gray rocky floor as the man was still, unmoving. The woman ran to the small lake and bit the apple, devouring it before her enemy regained his senses.
Unfortunately, the man couldn't possibly regain anything. He was already dead. His eyes fixed the lake where the golden apple floated. The light in them soon extinguished, leaving nothing but a dead sea behind.
The woman licked her fingers after finishing her meal. She, then, began to giggle alone. Her laughter echoed throughout the whole cave, scaring bats away, and as the black night creatures flew away from her, she kept laughing.
"I knew it. I knew he was up to no good. I am so glad i didn't tr—-"
She never finished that sentence. Her face suddenly changed color, from white to a sickly green color. And the next thing we witnessed was nothing but pleasant.
The woman was doubled over, her arms around her stomach. She kept throwing up, a scarlet liquid was getting out of her mouth, and I knew it.
I knew it was blood.
The realization hit me a little too late, after I had stopped crying my eyes out, screaming for the world to stop making us suffer, gripping my head with my hands. It hit me way after Noah had covered me with his body, hugging me to his chest so that instead of blood, I could only smell him, instead of my own screaming, I could only hear his reassuring voice.
It hit me after we got out of the cave, after we had left the bodies lying there, prey to the rodents and other creatures of the dark.
The golden apple wasn't the cure to achieve immortality.
It was poison.
Adam and Eve were the very first humans alive, but because they were alone, they didn't have much choice. They had to trust each other.
Except that they were both rotten to the core. Adam deceived Eve, and Eve killed Adam for revenge.
However, this raises the biggest question of all.
If humanity died on the day of conception, then who are the ones living currently on Earth?
Who are the real humans?